We hear a lot these days about a divided nation. So I began wondering this week why our nation has begun to embrace a relatively new celebration known as Kwanzaa, which is not as innocent as it appears on the surface.

Launched in 1966, Kwanzaa is celebrated for seven days, beginning Dec. 26. The weeklong festival was introduced by Ron Karenga (aka Ron Everett), a black author and Marxist devotee, who has a very dubious history. Mr. Karenga's Marxist roots should be a warning signal right off the bat, but there's more to be concerned about here.

In 1969, on the campus of UCLA, Mr. Karenga led a student group known as United Slaves, which, along with students in the equally radical Black Panthers (the rivals of United Slaves), actually attended classes with loaded weapons.

David Horowitz, in his book "Radical Son," noted that Black Panther John Higgins was then "murdered  along with Al 'Bunchy' Carter  on the UCLA campus by members of Ron Karenga's organization." Later, female members of the United Slaves said they were tortured by United Slaves members, all at Mr. Karenga's command.

Members of the organization have since reported being beaten and tortured by Mr. Karenga and his minions. He actually was convicted of felonious assault and false imprisonment in 1971 and sentenced to prison. At his trial, a psychiatrist's report declared: "This man now represents a picture which can be considered both paranoid and schizophrenic with hallucinations and elusions, inappropriate affect, disorganization and impaired contact with the environment."

But the story gets more bizarre.

When he was released from prison, Mr. Karenga had earned his doctorate degree and soon was appointed to the Black Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach.

I'll never cease to be amazed at the foolish gullibility of modern education officials.

Our nation, I believe, has also been naïve in accepting Kwanzaa without examining its roots and its founder. In our modern quest to embrace multiculturalism and diversity at all costs, I believe we are being duped by the founder of Kwanzaa.

I've watched several news reports on Kwanzaa in recent days and none of them have mentioned the dark history of its founder or its Marxist pedigree. The reports have simply noted that Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration rooted in African traditions, and even that is untrue.

Mr. Karenga himself admits that Kwanzaa is not fundamentally African, telling the Washington Post in 1978, "People think it's African, but it's not."

In a recent column, Ann Coulter, never one to mince words, said of Kwanzaa: "[It] is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism." She added, "When Karenga was asked to distinguish Kawaida, the philosophy underlying Kwanzaa, from 'classical Marxism,' he essentially explained that under Kawaida, we also hate whites."

Listen, I love learning about other cultures. At Liberty University, where I am the chancellor, this year we welcomed students from 83 nations among our 10,000-plus resident students. Further, nearly 14 percent of our student body is African-American. I truly enjoy meeting these students, hearing their stories and celebrating their life goals. It is fascinating to learn about others' customs and ways of life.

But I cannot accept Kwanzaa as a legitimate American holiday. It is corrupt and wholly anti-American. There is danger in it.

I join with Ann Coulter in celebrating Galatians 3:28, which notes that the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ is available to all, no matter their race, color, background or heritage. It says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. " (NKJV).

The celebration of the birth of Christ was randomly selected because his actual birthdate was unknown. Indeed, many Christian sects give only a secular nod towards Christmas.

However, there is no randomness in the date Easter is celebrated. Christians have convened hundreds (thousands) of times to pour over the records and scriptures to determine the historical accuracy and timing of the events leading up to the Resurrection of Christ. Easter is tied intimately to coincide with Passover and attempts to stay as closely timed with luna events as possible.

"Ignore it." Good grief. How can I ignore it when Kwanzaa is celebrated in my children's school, explained on the nightly news, highlighted on commercials, lauded on the airways and tantalized at the store? It gets more face time than Donald trump.

Another source of amazement is the concept of those who hold candlelight vigils (yet another example of religious ceremony) for heinous murderers about to be executed, a large number of whom think it is acceptable to murder an unborn child without the benefit of a trial.

Therein lies the problem: People inherently recognize the existence of God and have a deep inner need to worship. Because of secular education and a lack of an alternative, some folks grasp at any opportunity to defend humanity (the closest they can come to recognizing a supreme power), no matter how erroneous the defense may be.

To further add to the confusion, we have some radical isolationist leaders that preach the power of life of one group vs another, ie black and white supremacists.

Why choose to defend a murderer over an unborn babe? Because, not only does secularism teach so many to believe only in what can be seen and held, but because secularist teachers also intensely counter intuition with anti-life brainwashing in regard to unborn children.

Combining the need to worship the life force (as they see it) with the confusion over who is deserving of life vs. the definition of "Life", we get idiots holding candlelight vigils for murderers.

This is of course a generalization that does not apply to individual groups, such as Catholics, who would protest ALL human intervention on life--abortion and capital punishment included.

i am beginning to realize that there is no objective evidence that I exist. i am only going to celebrate fake holidays from now on. the crucial question is: how do we distinguish a fake holiday from a real holiday?

However, there is no randomness in the date Easter is celebrated. Christians have convened hundreds (thousands) of times to pour over the records and scriptures to determine the historical accuracy and timing of the events leading up to the Resurrection of Christ. Easter is tied intimately to coincide with Passover and attempts to stay as closely timed with luna events as possible.

The ecclesiastical rules are: Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after March 21 (the day of the ecclesiastical vernal equinox). This particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon).

That's a very pagan way of setting a celebration date -- which can be any Sunday from March 22 to April 25 inclusive. And the ecclesiastical full moon is not the same as the real full moon. It might not be random but it sure seems that way: plus or minus two and a half weeks.

Why not just celebrate it on the real Vernal Equinox?

115
posted on 12/30/2006 8:43:21 AM PST
by Solitar
("My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." -- Barry Goldwater)

Why does Eastern Christianity's dates for Easter not agree with Western Christianity's dates. They may be the same or over a month different! In Eastern Christianity, Easter falls between April 4 and May 8 between 1900 and 2100 based on the Gregorian date.

At least Kwanzaa has a set date.

122
posted on 12/30/2006 8:56:23 AM PST
by Solitar
("My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." -- Barry Goldwater)

So start every New Year on a Sunday on the first day of spring or the vernal equinox. Thirteen months of 4 weeks each plus one oddball day (two in leap years) would make this possible. Then you could put Christmas on a Sunday in midwinter -- and it would ALWAYS be on the same date.

124
posted on 12/30/2006 9:30:53 AM PST
by Solitar
("My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." -- Barry Goldwater)

How can I ignore it when Kwanzaa is celebrated in my children's school, explained on the nightly news, highlighted on commercials, lauded on the airways and tantalized at the store?

I have no idea where you live, but out here in America's heartland, Kansas City, 26th largest television market in the country, I haven't seen one ad in the stores, haven't seen it on the nightly news, haven't heard it on the radio, haven't seen it on TV. I guess we're plumb backwards.

Are you an atheist who believes Western science (hypothesize, test, repeat...) has pretty well explained the universe? A libertarian hedonist who thinks the main moral imperative of man is to manage his sex and drugs well so he won't burn out early or get a disease?

I have no problem with your picking on people's beliefs, but what are your's so we can pick on them too?

The origins of this holiday aren't important, the phoniness of this holiday isn't important, what is important is how it has been embraced by the establishment and what that says about them and the system. These people aren't children, they understand the nature of this thing, they indulge it because the benefits outweigh any costs to them. Misunderstanding has nothing to do with it.

Christmas is an illegitimate holiday.... For that matter, for similar reasons, Easter is just as illegitimate.

Not so fast my friend. The life and death of Christ is of little dispute. Just because the dates may be incorrect does not deligitimize their occurance. On the other hand (and back on the subject), Kwanzaa is totally made up from whole cloth to celebrate a culture and philosophy that never knew each other. Debate that.

No I don't think it's gaining respect. In fact, I think it's falling out of favor with the PC crowd. Here in Atlanta, I can only remember one station that has promos promoting Happy Kwazy...and that's a station that is urban in nature...

You are an idiot. Instead of belching out your ignorance, do yourself and everybody around you a favor, and learn your facts before you announce your OPINION.

There is more historical reference to the life of Jesus than there is to Socrates, Plato, Julius Ceasar and yet I bet you believe they existed.

If you really want some proof of Jesus (which I doubt you do) read The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel.Lee is a former atheist who was an investigative reporter years ago. He took his experience in investigating facts and applied it to the life of Jesus.

As far as the winter solstice and such, granted Christmas and Easter shanghai'd pagan holidays, but just because someone chooses to create a holiday to counter another doesn't disqualify it as a holiday. If I choose to celebrate Christmas, "I" choose what in the holiday I celebrate. Whether its the religious belief of the birth of Jesus, or its the secular following of Santa Claus. Pagans are still allowed to celebrate the winter solstice.

144
posted on 12/30/2006 3:23:08 PM PST
by mountn man
(The pleasure you get from life, is equal to the attitude you put into it.)

"The life and death of Christ is of little dispute."Oh yes it is worthy of dispute. It is totally made up from whole cloth with threads from prior pagan mythology

Here is just one of the ancient historians who acknowledged the life of Christ.

Cornelius Tacitus - He was a Roman senator in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries who wrote a 16 volume series on Roman emporers. The following was quoted from his work Annals, 15:44, by Lee Strobel in The Case for Christ:

"Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty [crucifixion] during the reign of Tiberius at the hand of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome ..."

Tacitus also wrote that during Nero's reign, the emporer scapegoated "a class hated for their abominations, called Christian by the populace."

Other ancient historians and philosphers who also mention the name of Christus/Christ include Pliny the Younger, Flavius Josephus, Caius Suetonius Tranquillus, Celsus, Lucian of Samosata, and Porphyry of Tyre.

Run a Google search and you will come up with a number of quotations from the above mentioned men. To my knowledge, none of those mentioned were Christian. Some of them even wrote scathing attacks against those calling themselves Christians.

I strongly believe evidence shows Jesus of Nazareth did exist on this earth.

Since the enlightened person is freed from any superstitions about some "God," they are free from having to worry about "rights." Only raw power counts and humans are just meat puppets for the powerful.

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